Ethos and Values

Our Ethos and Culture
 
The ethos and values of our school are extremely important to everyone at UTS. 
 
Our strap line of 'Living Gods' Love, Together We Flourish' is central to what we believe and evident in the way we support and work with all our children and families. All staff take great pride in being kind and  compassionate and dedicated to serving the needs of our community. 
 
We use the Biblical Scripture of ' I am the Vine; You are the Branches. If you believe in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit' John 15:5 to enhance our ethos and link our learning, successes and experiences to our collective flourishing.
 
We have been a 'Values' school for many years, this encompasses our distinctively Christian Values and important British and Human values which we teach and live our lives by. 
 
As a Church of England School, we place our christian distinctiveness and ethos at the heart of our work. Our close and extremely supportive relationship with Rev. Stephen Liley and Min-Min Peaker from Clapham Church is a strength which we draw from during the life of the school and through Stephen and Min-Min's weekly worship.
 
We also have a very positive and supportive relationship with the Diocese of St Albans, our partner Trust schools in the Diocese of St Albans Multi-Academy Trust and our local schools whom we work together with wherever possible. 
 

Promoting Values at Ursula Taylor

As a Church of England School judged as ‘Outstanding’ in the last SIAMS inspection, (Statutory Inspection for Anglican and Methodist Schools) and as a ‘Values Education’ school, we place a very high importance upon the teaching of values, both Christian, British and Human. 

 

We take opportunities to actively promote our children’s knowledge of all values through a comprehensive programme of whole school, class based and individual teaching and learning. Through our Values Education programme we seek to reinforce Christian and British values and find that in many instances the ‘Christian’, ‘Human’ and ‘British’ Values are one and the same thing.

 

We also ensure that we are challenging opinions or behaviours in school that are contrary to fundamental British Values, including extremist views. We are an inclusive school that welcomes all children regardless of their faith and those who have none.

 

We use our Values teaching to provide our children, parents and staff with the tools needed to contribute effectively to society, engage in meaningful relationships with others and to be able to explain and demonstrate their understanding of the differences between right and wrong.

 

British Values are defined as: democracy, the rule of the law, liberty, respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. (Promoting British values as part of SMSC in schools DfE November 2014)

 

At Ursula Taylor we experience a different value every half term, with individual classes taking responsibility for delivering collective worship linked to the value. One class introduces the value and a second class ends the half term with collective worship that shares their understanding and links to Jesus’ teachings through bible stories.

 

We also have a Values display in every classroom and newsletters feature the half termly value. Class dojo is used to communicate with parents and photos and ideas linked to our school values are often shared, Weekly value certificates are awarded to children who demonstrate the half termly value and children’s ideas about school values are displayed in a whole school display.

At UTS our Values progamme is designed to encompass Christian, British and Human Values. The following document details the 4 British Values of Democracy, The Rule of Law, Individual Liberty and Tolerance of Different Faiths and Beliefs and gives some examples of how we support this teaching in our school.